The grant will be used solely to fund travel, registration, and subsistence for participants in the Gordon Research Conference on Epithelial Differentiation to be held August 5-9, 1985 in Tilton, NH. Participants involved in investigational techniques germane to epithelial differentiation will be invited. Invitation will not be limited to investigators working on epithelia. Our attempt will be to expose investigators dedicated to biology of epithelial differentiation to state of the art investigative techniques. Conversely, investigators from other areas will be exposed to the biological problems of epithelial differentiation. There are seven themes that will be presented and discussed at the meeting: (1) Keratin and keratin genes and the factors that modulate their expression; (2) Growth and differentiation of keratinocytes in culture and what influences their behavior; (3) The cornified cell envelope and desmosomes with emphasis on molecular structure and assembly; (4) Immunologic functions of the keratinocytes and the cytokines they synthesize; (5) Metabolic pathways that regulate epithelial differentiation; (6) Non-mammalian keratins, particularly of birds and reptiles; (7) Models of carcinogenesis using SV40 transformation of keratinocytes and studies of human colon carcinoma development.